The Trials of Time
by Ilurvesfewd
Summary: Sora is unexpectedly transported to different situations that make no sense to him and while other people have said they've experienced similar things, Riku insists he hasn't noticed anything.


The roaring winds were deafening, rumbling through Sora's chest. He could feel it hitting against him, throwing sand and ocean water at his body. For a moment, he was confused. He had no recollection of how he'd gotten where he was or why he'd gone there in the first place. Sora glanced around at his surroundings, having difficulty seeing much in the dark. He could see two tall shadows connected together with an expanse of darkness that stretched between them. Closer to Sora was the silhouette of a dock, supported with beams that sometimes crossed over each other.

It took Sora a minute to realise these things were familiar to him. The tall shadows were the giant trees along the shoreline and the expanse between them, the bridge that his friends and he often hung out on. Destiny Island, but Sora didn't remember coming out here. Small rectangular shapes started to float up from the giant trees, going up into the sky. More stuff started getting pulled upwards, disappearing above Sora's head.

His eyes went to the sky, taking in the state of it. A sphere of dark plasma hung there among the stars, purple lighting and grey puffs of smoke swirling around inside the thing. It sucked in the objects on the island, growing bigger with each swallow of sand and wooden boards. Sora stepped back a bit, almost stumbling over his own feet. He stared at the pulsing ball of darkness, his mind trying to come up with a reason for why it would be there. Sora's breathing became as ragged as the winds whipping around him, thoughts of what it'd be like to be sucked up into that thing circulated through his head.

He shook his head, trying to shift the idea of a possible gruesome death. Sora looked around, not really sure what he was searching for. Probably something to draw his attention away from the hungry object hovering over Destiny Island. A distraction in the form of a figure came into view, standing still despite what was happening around them. They were on an area slightly away from the shoreline, raised up higher than the beach Sora was on. A bridge connected that part of the island to the part Sora was standing on, but he would have to go up the stairs to get to them.

"Hey" Sora called out to them, trying to be heard over the winds and the growling that came from the sky. They showed no indication of hearing him, their body staying motionless. "I'm coming up there. Just wait" he shouted.

He turned around, making his way to the seaside shack. Some of the boards had been taken away from the sides and the roof. Sora went inside, running up the stairs to get to the bridge. The stairs didn't lead straight up, veering off to the right. It made it hard for Sora to navigate in the dark. He burst through the other side, stopping short of the bridge. The figure shifted upon Sora's arrival, their head cocking over to his direction. Strands of hair whipped around their face, but it didn't seem to bother them, gaze firmly fixed on Sora. He studied them back, a few features starting to come into view, mainly aquamarine eyes.

"Riku?" he asked. The figure didn't reply to him, just continued to stare. Sora went across the bridge, trying again to talk to them. "Do you know what's going on?"  
Their response came back in the form of a head shake and as Sora neared the end of the bridge, he saw that the other person was in fact his silver haired best friend.

"I can't tell you anything right now. I don't know what's going on myself" Riku said, his voice calm and quiet, contrasting against the howling wind. His eyes turned to the sky, watching the orb devour the island they stood on. "When I understand this, I will tell you. I may need you on this."

Sora stared at Riku. Now, more confused by his friend's behaviour than the weather that was tearing the beach apart. Riku didn't look back at Sora, gaze still fixed on the dark energy swirling around above them.

"What are you on about?" he shouted, partly to be heard over all the noise and partly from the fact that his friend remained calm during everything that was going on. Riku turned to him, face stony and indifferent. He began to soften when he saw the panic that Sora was showing own his face. He opened his mouth to speak again, but was cut off.

Vines of black sprouted from the ground, swirling upwards and attaching themselves to Riku's limbs. They fixed him in place, making it impossible for Riku to move. Sora's eyes widen and he became frozen, unsure of what was happening or what to even do in this situation. More dark appendages emerged from the sand, causing Sora to stumble backwards. They went for Riku, latching onto any part of him they could. One wrapped around the silver haired boy's mid-section and another found its place tight on his throat, but Riku remained calm through it all.

"Riku" Sora shouted, snapping out of his shock immobilised state. He reached his hand out to his friend, trying to do something to help him. A wall of darkness shot up between them, brushing against Sora's finger-tips. The wall curved downwards, washing over the place Riku was standing and the wall and Riku disappeared together. "Riku" he murmured, walking forward to the last place Riku had been. He looked up at the sky, feeling a pain in the back of his head as he did so. Sora closed his eyes, groaning a bit. When he opened them again, he saw a pale yellow ceiling.

Sora stared at the ceiling above him, the colour fading out and the textures mixing together in a dizzying way. The longer he looked at the ceiling, the more fuzzy and dysfunctional it appeared.

"Yes?" a voice inquired. Sora pulled his eyes away from it and diverted them over to the left where he had heard the voice come from. He saw someone sitting a few feet away from him, but his squinting at the ceiling had left his vision a bit wonky. Sora blinked, followed by several others. Long silver hair and aquamarine eyes came into view.

"Riku?" Sora asked, still taking in the appearance of the person next to him.  
"Yeah. You said my name before. Did you need something?" he replied. Sora continued to stare at his friend, his mind blank and not really thinking at all. Then it all hit him, the dark orb hanging in the sky, the beach being destroyed and Riku being taken away…

Sora jumped up, slamming his legs against a desk he didn't know they had been under. He moved backwards, scraping the chair, he didn't know he was sitting in, along the floor. Once he was away from the furniture that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, he came to stand beside Riku, staring at him with panic in his eyes.  
"Are you okay? What happened to the island? What happened to you?" he blurted out, waving his arms around in spastic ways. Riku looked at Sora, confusion settling on his face.

"Did you have a bad dream?" he asked, his features becoming softer. Riku offered Sora a small smile, a kind and compassionate light in his eyes.  
"It wasn't a dream" Sora told him, but then he started to realise where he was. Desks and chairs arranged in vertical lines, a blackboard taking up a large expanse of the front wall, large windows letting light in from the left and the wooden boards beneath Sora's feet. A typical classroom setting.

He glanced over to Riku, noticing his attire. A white button-up shirt, navy blue tie with navy blue shorts. A typical school uniform. Sora looked down at his own clothing, seeing it was the same as Riku's, just in a different size.  
"At least it didn't feel like a dream…" Sora murmured, his eyes falling to the floor. Riku sighed, bringing Sora's attention back over to him. He appeared to be amused by Sora's actions. He tried to smile back at Riku, but something kept telling him that what he experienced before was more than a dream.

"Come on. We'll be late to our next class if we don't hurry" Riku told him, sliding his chair backwards. He stood up and slung his bag over his shoulders, pushing the chair back in with his knee. Sora watched him, his friend's movements barely registering in his mind. He still felt a little disorientated. Riku's sideways face came into his view, a smirk was on his face, half hidden by the silver hair that fell over his face.

"We'd really like you back on earth, Sora" Riku teased, his smirk turning into a cheeky grin. Sora rolled his eyes and shook his head, but a small smile was on his lips.  
"All right. I'm coming" Sora sighed. He blew into Riku's face, dispersing the strands of hair that lay across it. His friend didn't seem to like it, grimacing as Sora's breath hit his skin. Sora laughed at his reaction. He grabbed his bag from beside his chair. Riku was already heading over to the classroom door, rubbing at his face with his sleeve. Sora joined him later.

When Sora got into the hallway, he noticed that a lot of students seemed to sporting looks of confusion. Some were more out of it than others, but everyone seemed to be at least slightly affected by something. All except for Riku that was. He strode down the hallway, avoiding the dazed students, his calm demeanour accompanying him as it always did.

He heard murmurs of conversation as his peers walked past him, but it all sounded like gibberish to him. The few words he was able to distinguish weren't very helpful and didn't explain why the people around him were so hazy. He tried to ignore them and continue onto his next class, following the trail that Riku left behind. Someone caught onto Sora's arm, pulling him to a stop.

Sora looked over to see who had latched onto him. Kairi stood beside him, wrapping her fingers around his arm gently. Her eyes were cast downwards, red fringe shadowing half of her face.  
"What's wrong, Kairi?" he asked, tilting his head to try and make eye contact with her. She suddenly looked up at him and Sora had to jump back to avoid colliding heads with her.  
"Sorry" she murmured, embarrassment on her face.  
"All good" he assured her with a small smile. She smiled back at him. Kairi took a step towards him, leaning over as if to whisper something to him, but she stopped midway through the action.

Kairi was not the only one to cease moving, everyone around them had frozen in place. Sora tried to move, but not even his eyes would divert its trajectory. It was uncertain how long they had remained in stasis, but their movement had been given back to them as sudden as it had been taken away. Sora glanced around the hallway, gauging the reactions of the other students. Looks of bewilderment adorning their faces.

"What just happened?" Sora asked, gaze still skimming over the people in his vicinity.  
"You noticed it too?" Kairi said, calling Sora's attention down to her. He regarded her for a minute before answering her question with a nod. She sighed, seeming relieved by his response. Sora felt the same way. After his one-sided conversation with Riku, he'd been starting to think his imagination was playing a cruel joke on him. Riku had acted like nothing had happened though and he was beginning to wonder why.

Sora got up on his toes, peering over the crowd. He kept an eye out for Riku, his unusual hair colour made him easier to locate. Sora headed over to him, pushing slow moving students out of his way. Many of them were still dazed and unsure, whispering to their friends. People didn't really appreciate Sora sort of shoving them over to the side. He gave them muttered apologises, that was if he remembered to. None of them were relevant right now when he was trying to get over to Riku.

He made it over to Riku, grabbing his wrist to keep his friend by his side. Riku turned to look at Sora, raising an eye-brow and questioning Sora's actions with his eyes. Sora waited to make sure Riku's attention was on him and when he was certain it was, he spoke.  
"You can't tell me you didn't notice that" Sora said. He stared into Riku's eyes, trying to convey how serious he was. In turn, he was met with an expression of utter confusion on Riku's part.  
"Notice what?" he asked him.

"Are you serious?" Sora shouted, causing some of the nearby students to jump. If he didn't care about pushing students around, he definitely didn't care about scaring them with his sudden loud voice either. His gaze was fixed on Riku, ignoring everyone else. This time Sora was quieter with his words because even if he didn't care about his peers right now, he still didn't want their attention on him. "You didn't notice that everyone was frozen and couldn't move?"

Riku shook his head and went to head off to class again. Sora still had a hold of Riku's wrist and used his grip on him to pull him back to where he was.  
"Kairi noticed it" he told him; his voice had a hint of darkness in it. He hadn't intended it to come off like that, but Riku's act of ignorance was starting to annoy him and if Sora was being honest, ignorance really didn't suit Riku.

"I don't know what to tell you. I didn't notice anything weird" Riku said, becoming defensive. Sora let go of his friend's wrist, stepping away from him.  
"Okay. Never mind" Sora murmured. Riku looked over him for a minute before continuing on to their destination. Sora shuffled after him, being more considerate to the students around him this time.

They made it to their next class, gravitating to the seats in the centre of the room. Sora sat down, placing his bag on the ground beside him. He rummaged through the contents of his bag, searching for what he needed. Sora straightened in his seat, bringing the things he'd fished out of his bag with him. He froze when he sat up, glancing around with wide eyes. The classroom had disappeared.

In front of him was a large expanse of dark sky and sparkling stars. He could see himself amongst it all, his reflection caught in the glass that separated them. Sora walked over to the glass, noticing more things in the galaxy as he got closer. Small specs of colour were far off in the distance, plotted at random points in the sky. Each one had its own theme and look, all completely different worlds to each other.

He turned around to survey the area he currently found himself in. The whole place was made of metal, bonded together in varying patterns. Panels with different types of buttons lined the sides and one more stood at the centre. Mixed up with the buttons were gauges, flashing lights and computer screens. From what he could see, it appeared that Sora was on some kind of alien space ship.

Sora spotted two figures off to the right. Their bodies hunched over one of the panels, studying a computer screen. He went over to approach them. Something about them seemed off and Sora got the feeling that they weren't entirely human. He was starting to think that maybe he actually was on an alien space ship. Sora stopped just beside them. He was going to speak to them, but words didn't find their way out of his mouth. The pair of them looked over at Sora.

He stared at them with wide eyes, mouth falling down of its own volition. The two figures were a duck and a dog. The duck was half a foot shorter than Sora. A large portion of its face was its two huge eyes and the parts that were left, taken by its enormous bill. A small blue hat sat upon its head matching its blue shirt. The other figure was a dog that towered over both the duck and Sora. It had a long snout and huge eyes just like the duck had. Two buck teeth protruded from the top part of his jaw, quite a distance between them. This animal had more clothing on than the duck. Its attire composed of a yellow hat and yellow pants, a green shirt, brown shoes and white gloves.

"What the heck are you?" he shouted, stepping away from them. Sora felt his foot fall on something and a squeaky disgruntled voice spoke up against the action.  
"Hey, you stepped on my tail" they growled. Sora turned to regard the owner of the voice and found himself staring down at two more animal creatures. They were both chipmunks. At least these two were at the normal height of an actual chipmunk, but their looks were not normal. These two had huge eyes like the dog and the duck. They were practically identical with their brown fur covering their bodies, except their stomach and part of their face where there was yellow fur and their buck teeth. The only difference was that one had a red nose and the other had a black nose.  
"What the heck are those?" Sora screamed, jumping up into the air. He fell over, landing on his back.

Sora groaned and rubbed the back of his head. His eyes had slid closed from the sudden pain he felt. He opened them, gazing upwards. A blue sky came into his vision, white clouds drifted by, but barely any were there. It didn't register to Sora; his mind had become a muddled mess from his encounter with those weird animals. He took a moment to gather his wits again. Sora breathed in and out, tasting something salty in the air. He sat up, hearing something rattle beneath him. His elbows slipped into the grooves of what was under him, it pinched his skin in places.

Sora stared out at the horizon, seeing the clear ocean waves roll towards him. The sunlight glinted off the water, shimmering like the stars Sora had just seen. He felt calmer watching the scene, his breathing evened out with each wave that crashed on the shore. Sora stood up, seeing that the things he'd been laying across were wooden boards. They squeaked as he got to his feet. He lifted his arms over his head, trying to shift the pain he still felt in his back.

"I guess I'm off that ship with the highly evolved animals" he murmured to himself. Sora let his arms fall back to his sides. He took in the view of the sea for a moment longer before turning around to see where he was. A large tree was the first thing he saw. Its branch reached far beyond the skyline, dark green leaves attached to them. A series of ramps and ladders lead to the very top of the tree where a small room was. Sora realised he was back on Destiny Island, but this time the sky was bright and missing an orb that sucked up everything on the beach.

He could see someone passing by the tree and instantly recognised the person as his friend, Riku. Sora walked up off ramp and headed to where he saw Riku. The silver haired boy went to the right side of the tree, just beside the twin waterfalls. Sora rushed over, running past the waterfall and to the edge of the tree. Greenery covered the wall between the tree and the rushing water, but Sora knew that Riku could have only have gone to this place which he and his friends referred to as the secret place. Sora bent down and crawled under the branches to get to the other side.

He stood up, brushing the dirt off his clothes. Small scratches were left on his arms from wading through the branches. Sora walked down the narrow tunnel he found himself in. The poor lighting made it difficult to see. He skimmed his hand along the stone walls to feel his way around or maybe the feel of the rocks just made Sora a little bit more comfortable. The passage curved to the right, opening up into a larger area.

Thick tree roots had broken through the ceiling, claiming part of the walls as theirs. One had made a little window, that allowed sunlight to drift in and illuminate the place. Drawings covered the stones around him, created by Sora and his friends.

He could see Riku standing in front of a door that had no handle. A golden trim lined the outskirts of it. Two shining branches reached for each other at the top of the wooden surface, but recoiled, curling back on itself. A golden squiggle hung just under them in the place where they should have met. Starting from the left side and ending in the centre of the door, lay a crack.

"Riku" Sora called out in a soft voice. Riku turned around to face him, a sad smile set upon his features. He stared at Sora for a moment before looking away from his friend. His sad smile morphing into a slight frown.  
"I know what's going on now" Riku told him. He sighed, eyes trailing the golden trim finish of the door. "And it's all my fault, Sora."  
"So, what's going on?" Sora asked, moving closer to Riku. He placed his hand on the other's shoulder, but Riku shrugged it off.

"I come from a time, not too far in the future, where you are no longer alive" Riku said, his voice far off and distant. He kept his eyes on the door, not chancing a glance over at him. Sora was surprised by the sentence. He didn't really know what he expected Riku to say, but that was pretty high on the list of things that were unexpected. Before Sora could react Riku was speaking again. "I came back to this island sometime after your death. Somehow I found myself in here. I was so angry and I took it out on this door…"

"You broke it" Sora cut in, a knowing smirk finding its way on his lips. Riku looked over at him, letting out a small laugh. Smile still on his lips, Riku nodded, confirming what Sora had said. He turned back to the door again.

"This door is the doorway to time, regulating the flow of time, but because I broke it" Riku continued. He could feel Sora nudging him in a teasing manner as he said the last bit. He sighed and pushed Sora away from him. "Time can no longer operate properly and keeps jumping backwards and forwards. Even halting completely at some points."  
"You said you didn't notice" Sora shouted, sticking an accusing finger in his friend's face. Riku rolled his eyes and hit Sora's hand away, an amused smile on his face.

"I told you before that I didn't want to say anything until I knew what was going on" Riku reminded him. Sora thought back to the time he had been on the beach. He remembered the world getting devoured by the orb above him, Riku's calm nature and his vague words and the darkness that had taken Riku away.

"Riku… the beach getting destroyed… is there a way we can prevent that?" Sora asked, arranging his thoughts of what happened slowly. Riku stared at Sora, his features becoming a mask of seriousness. He shook his head, diverting his eyes to the ground with the motion. "I had a feeling that was the case" he murmured.  
"It's an event that needs to happen" Riku told him.

"Well, let's make it happen then" Sora said. He felt his throat tighten as he said the words. Sora didn't like the idea of what happened to Riku happening again and also didn't like thinking that he might have to watch it again, not save him again.  
"Okay." Riku murmured, his voice cut through Sora's thoughts. "I think I know how to fix this." Sora nodded, half listening to him.

Riku started to walk away from the door. Sora followed after him once he realised Riku had moved. The silver haired boy brought his hand up in front of him, his fingers curled inwards, closing into his palm. A light gathered around Riku's hand, growing in size until it burst into a fading dust. Left behind in Riku's hand was a large Victorian looking key. All of it coloured a midnight blue, with sparkles of silver that glinted against the light.

Sora looked over at Riku, waiting for something to happen. As he watched him, he found that Riku seemed to be scared of what came after this. Sora moved closer to him, grabbing onto the parts of the handle Riku's hands didn't cover. Riku jumped as he did, shocked by the sudden movement.  
"We do things together, yeah?" Sora said, smiling at Riku. He stared at Sora and soon his friend's smile was mirrored on his own face.  
"Yeah" Riku agreed.

They pointed the key at the door, a bright blue light emitting from it. The light traced over the crack in the door, sealing up the imperfection. Once they had fixed it, they let their arms drop, key dissipating from their hands. The earth shook beneath them, causing both of them to fall to the ground together. A light took over the door shining into Sora and Riku's eyes. It blinded them and became the only thing they could see.


End file.
